However, anyone who seeks the essence of the man himself can still do no better than reading the only book that can lay claim to being autobiographical, distilled from hours of conversation and close interaction between Fela and Carlos Moore. Fela, Fela: This Bitch of a Life, first published by Allison & Busby in London over a quarter century ago, has long been out of print, with rare secondhand copies changing ownership sometimes at hundreds of dollars, so it is gratifying that it is at last to enjoy currency again. Here can be found Fela’s uncensored and uncompromising words and thoughts.
Twenty-five-plus years ago, when this book originally appeared, becoming the first biography ever (to my knowledge) of an African musician, Fela could accurately be described as controversy personified—African superstar, popular composer, singer-musician who had swept to international celebrity on a wave of scandal and flamboyance. He was “a living legend ... Africa’s most popular entertainer,” said the New Musical Express. His volcanic performances and notoriously unconventional lifestyle brought him into constant conflict with the Nigerian authorities, while millions of ordinary people connected emotionally and physically with his songs. Newspaper headlines played up his public image, his marriage to twenty-seven women, the brutal raid on his household, his arrest and acquittal on numerous charges.
By the accident of birth Fela (or Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, as
he was originally named) could have chosen to settle for the conformist existence and trappings of Nigeria’s educated middle class, yet from the outset he instinctively rejected that option. He considered himself an abiku, a spirit child in the Yoruba tradition, who was reborn on October 15, 1938, in Abeokuta, the fourth of five children, coming into the world three years after his politically aware parents had suffered an infant bereavement. His mother Funmilayo was a pioneering feminist and campaigner in the anticolonial movement; his father, Reverend Israel Ransome-Kuti, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.2
At the age of nineteen Fela was sent to London to study medicine but instead enrolled at Trinity College of Music, forming his Koola Lobitos band in 1961 with his school friend J. K. Braimah. In 1969 he traveled with the group to the United States, where he connected with Black Power militants and became increasingly politicized. Specifically, his meeting with Sandra Smith (currently Sandra Izsadore), a member of the Black Panthers, was a catalyst for everything that was to follow. Turned on to books on black history and politics, particularly Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Fela began to demonstrate a new consciousness in his lyrics.
He returned to Nigeria, renamed the band Afrika 70, offloaded his “slave name” of Ransome, and set to championing the cause of the poor underclass and exposing the hypocrisy of the ruling elites, establishing his commune, the Kalakuta Republic, and his nightclub, the Afrika Shrine. The pidgin in which he wrote his lyrics, dealing wittily and provocatively with everything from gender relations to government corruption, made him accessible and hugely popular not only in Nigeria but in the rest of Africa, in line with the Nkrumahist Pan- Africanism he espoused, as well as bringing him to the attention of top musicians from the West. The genre he created, Afrobeat, is a heady, mesmerizing concoction with traditional African rhythmic roots but which also drew on various strands of contemporary black music—jazz, calypso, funk. It was a two-way process, and when James Brown and his musicians toured Nigeria in 1970 they took notice of what the rebellious young Nigerian was doing. He was making an indelible impact on master performers such as Gilberto Gil and Stevie Wonder, Randy Weston, and Hugh Masekela. Paul McCartney, recording in Lagos in 1972, called Fela’s group “the best band I’ve ever seen live. ... When Fela and his band eventually began to play, after a long, crazy build-up, I just couldn’t stop weeping with joy. It was a very moving
experience.”3 (Fela did not return the compliment, reportedly berating the Beatle for trying to “steal black man’s music.”) Brian Eno of Roxy Music and David Byrne of Talking Heads are among those who could also testify to the fact that encountering Fela and his music had a way of changing people’s lives forever.
The Nigerian establishment and the military regime responded with increasing violence both to Fela’s counterculture lifestyle and to his naked condemnation of the military regime, notably in his 1977 hit “Zombie.” His compound was attacked by hundreds of soldiers, who not only inflicted a fractured skull and other wounds on Fela but callously threw his octogenarian mother out of a window, leading to her death—an episode trenchantly marked in “Coffin for Head of State” and “Unknown Soldier.” He founded an organization called Movement of the People, but his ambition to run for the presidency of Nigeria was thwarted by the authorities.
Fela adamantly disavowed conventional morals, and his unabashed, sacramental approach to sex awakened the media’s prurient interest. It is rare to find any press consideration of his music that does not interpolate voyeuristic references to his domestic arrangements, and there is no denying that he was a gift to the tabloid media in thrall to the exoticism of black sexuality. This is not the place to debate in detail what the connection may be between Fela’s polygyny and the misogyny he has been accused of (evidenced by songs such as “Mattress”), but it is worth mentioning a theory that has been advanced by DJ Rita Ray: that, far from exploiting the young women he took as wives—his “queens,” many of whom speak out for themselves for the first time in this book —Fela was taking a progressive stance by conferring on his dancers the respectability of being married. Nonetheless, for a man who was so clear-sighted on certain political issues, he was not immune from embracing often dubious attitudes, be they sexist or homophobic. Now, as much as then, Fela has the capability to disturb and shock and confuse, as well as to inspire. Insofar as he was resistant to being made to feel there was anything shameful or immoral in the pursuit of sexual pleasure, he chose to believe he was simply interpreting and expressing what comes naturally for the typical African male, unfettered by Western-imposed religious teachings. Nor, it has to be said, were his views on women necessarily far removed from those that could have been found among many other black militants of the era.
As much as Fela was a man of principle, he was a man of contradiction. His lasting appeal is in the sum of all the parts. He was a composer, a protest singer,
and a multi-instrumentalist—a visionary musician rather than a technical virtuoso. He was a rebel and a revolutionary and, at the same time, a kind of shaman. The infectious groove of his compositions is accompanied by razor- sharp social commentary, the shifts of gear and mood changes of each track sometimes extending for as long as thirty minutes. As the revolutionary philosopher and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon did long before him, Fela identified the ills afflicting postindependence Africa, saw that the new elites were not going to be the emancipators. In “Colonial Mentality” he accused:
You don be slave from before, Dem don release you now
But you never release yourself.
In composition after composition, Fela mounted a sustained challenge to neocolonialism and was unafraid to name names when condemning the specific failings of those in authority in Nigeria. Little wonder that he was rewarded with their opprobrium. But that violent hostility of the ruling elite was the price Fela accepted he must pay for advocating people power.
“Fela loved to buck the system,” his relative Wole Soyinka recognized. “His music, to many, was both salvation and echo of their anguish, frustrations and suppressed aggression. The black race was the beginning and end of knowledge and wisdom, his life mission, to effect a mental and physical liberation of the race.”4
Fela: This Bitch of a Life is unique in being able to give us some truly remarkable insights into an acknowledged creative genius for whom even superlatives can seem inadequate.
We all have the power of attraction—the ability to draw people in and hold them in our thrall. Far from all of us, though, are aware of this inner potential, and we imagine attractiveness instead as a near-mystical trait that a select few are born with and the rest will never command.
Yet all we need to do to realize our potential is understand what it is in a person's character that naturally excites people and develop these latent qualities within us. Successful seductions rarely begin with an obvious maneuver or strategic device.
That is certain to arouse suspicion. Successful seductions begin with your character, your ability to radiate some quality that attracts people and stirs their emotions in a way that is beyond their control.
Hypnotized by your seductive character, your victims will not notice your subsequent manipulations. It will then be child's play to mislead and seduce them.
There are nine seducer types in the world. Each type has a particular character trait that comes from deep within and creates a seductive pull. Sirens have an abundance of sexual energy and know how to use it. Rakes insatiably adore the opposite sex, and their desire is infectious.
Ideal Lovers have an aesthetic sensibility that they apply to romance. Dandies like to play with their image, creating a striking and androgynous allure. Naturals are spontaneous and open. Coquettes are self-sufficient, with a fascinating cool at their core. Charmers want and know how to please—they are social creatures. Charismatics have an unusual confidence in themselves.
Stars are ethereal and envelop themselves in mystery.
The chapters in this section will take you inside each of the nine types. At least one of the chapters should strike a chord—you will recognize part of yourself. That chapter will be the key to developing your own powers of attraction. Let us say you have coquettish tendencies. The Coquette chapter will show you how to build upon your own self-sufficiency, alternating heat and coldness to ensnare your victims. It will show you how to take your natural qualities further, becoming a grand Coquette, the type we fight over. There is no point in being timid with a seductive quality.
We are charmed by an unabashed Rake and excuse his excesses, but a halfhearted Rake gets no respect. Once you have cultivated your dominant character trait, adding some art to what nature has given you, you can then develop a second or third trait, adding depth and mystery to your persona. Finally the section's tenth chapter, on the Anti-Seducer, will make you aware of the op34 • The Art of Seduction posite potential within you—the power of repulsion. At all cost you must root out any anti-seductive tendencies you may have. Think of the nine types as shadows, silhouettes. Only by stepping into one of them and letting it grow inside you can you begin to develop the seductive character that will bring you limitless power.
I'll go back to black and nothing at all. I'll get away, I can promise you that. But damn it, right now it ain't feeling like that. I could go bad, give you hell. 'Cause that would feel good for myself. You made me a fool; you made me a monster. Goddamn, I'm mad, but what is much worse. You take that away, and I am just hurt.
Cindy's cat calmly sat on the zinc fence, imagining many insects near. Zane noticed the mice inching closer, but Nina quickly caught them. Mixing ice cream was essential in the mini kitchen, yet Carol insisted on changing ingredients.
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a fearless maverick for whom music was a righteous and invincible weapon. The momentum is indeed gathering for a whole new generation to be brought the message of Fela Kuti—spoke of indestructibility and resilience. It was an apt choice for the creator of an amazingly timeless body of work that for decades has transcended barriers of class and nationality, gathering ever more strength and devotees with the passing decades. Fela was indeed a man who seems always to have been destined for the almost-mythical status he has now claimed among music fans around the world.
When his life was cut short in 1997, after fifty-eight years lived to the extreme and beyond all predictable convention, countless individuals felt the loss. On the day of his funeral, the streets of Lagos were brought to a standstill, with more than a million people defying the Nigerian government ban on public gatherings that had been imposed by the military dictator General Sani Abacha. One hundred and fifty thousand mourners are reputed to have queued in Tafawa Balewa Square, in the heart of Lagos, to pay their last respects as they filed past the glass coffin, which was then carried by hearse through the extraordinary throng, the cavalcade taking seven hours to cover a mere twenty kilometers to reach the neighborhood of Ikeja, where Fela was to be laid to rest.
In the words of Fela’s illustrious cousin, the Nobel Prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka, “Neither the police nor the military dared show its face on that day, and the uniformed exceptions only came to pay tribute. Quite openly, with no attempt whatsoever at disguising their identities, they stopped by his bier, saluted the stilled scourge of corrupt power, mimic culture and militarism. It was a much needed act of solidarity for us.”1
More than a decade has passed since then, and recognition of Fela and of his significance is at an all-time high. The multinational entertainment group HMV ranked him as number 46 in a list of the 100 most influential musicians of the twentieth century. His ongoing legacy has been confirmed not only in the rising individual musical careers of his two sons, Femi (who served a teenage apprenticeship with his father’s band Egypt 80 before founding his own, the
Positive Force) and Seun (inheritor of Egypt 80), but also in the plethora of commemorative events to honor him that have been mounted in major cities around the world and that continue to be planned. There have been birthday concerts played and tribute CDs produced, involving musicians as varied as Jorge Ben, Macy Gray, Manu Dibango, MeShell Ndegecello, Baaba Maal, Archie Shepp, and Taj Mahal, among others. From London to San Francisco there have been major exhibitions, including the 2003–2004 multimedia “Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Kuti” exhibition, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, which celebrated Fela through the response of an impressive variety of visual and other artists. The year 2008 brought exciting news of Fela! A New Musical bursting onto the Off-Broadway stage. Ethnomusicologist Michael Veal’s scholarly work Fela: Life and Times of an African brought Fela to the attention of the academic community, and a groundbreaking film is in preparation by acclaimed director John Akomfrah. The momentum is indeed gathering for a whole new generation to be brought the message of Fela Kuti.
Ik ben Jules boom
Ze denken dat ik de normaalste persoon hier op school ben, omdat ik zo populair ben, omdat iedereen vrienden met me wilt zijn. Het is ook logisch ik bedoel kijk naar me.
Maar ze hebben geen idee dat ik dakloos ben.
Het begon allemaal op 2 september 2023 ik had een 3 gehaald voor wiskunde, nou zijn mijn ouders al niet blij dat ik naar havo ben gegaan ipv gymnasium maar ja daar kunnen ze niet echt iets aan doen. Daar door verwachten ze van me dat ik wel hoge punten haal, maar ik vind het echt heel moeilijk. Vooral wiskunde. M’n ouders zijn er de hele tijd over tegen me aan het schreeuwen. Terwijl ik mijn best doe, maar daar kan ik nog mee leven. Op 2 september gingen ze te ver. Mijn vader heeft me drie keer in mijn buik gestompt. Terwijl mijn moeder aan het schreeuwen was dat ik een mislukt kind ben. Toen ben ik weggerend, ik kon het niet meer aan. Ik heb een koffer in gepakt met mijn favoriete kleren en heb mijn oortjes, telefoon, oplader en spaargmot meegenomen. De eerste plek waar ik naar toe ging was het pin automaat, ik wouw zo snel mogelijk als mijn geld contant hebben zodat mijn ouders het niet van me rekening af kunnen halen. Morgen moet ik meteen bij werk vragen of ze me contant uit kunnen betalen, ik werk bij de appie en verdien bijna niks maar het is net genoeg om van rond te komen.
Dear Sadia
At first take my cordial love with the core of my heart. Hope you are well. I am also well by the grace of Almighty Allah. I received your letter yesterday. In your letter you have wanted to know about
No more today. please convey my best regards to your parents and youngers. Your loving friend
There was once a man with three sons, and this man was elderly and dying. On top of being elderly and dying, this man was suffering from success, and as such had too many possessions he had to give away upon his death. And so, this man got to writing a will.
It was a difficult task. The man had three sons and two jeeps, and he had other possessions, yes, but the most difficult to split were the jeeps. His sons prized the jeeps at #1 and could care less about all the other possessions, who cares about houses and heirlooms and inheriting the family empire when you can have a jeep? After nights of thinking and erasing and thinking again, the man finished his will.
"Okay, I've written my will," said the man. "Listen carefully, now, boys."
"My eldest son, you will get my jeep." The eldest beamed.
"My middle son, you will get--" "the other jeep?" The man smiled.
"No, even better," said the man, "you will get not one, but two jeeps." The middle son was elated. The eldest was confused and indignant. The middle son gets TWO jeeps while he only gets one?! Unthinkable! (In fairy tales with three sons, you don't want to be the first son)
Asked the eldest: "Wait, don't we only have two jeeps? Where'd you get the third jeep from?"
The man smiled again. "See, I sold the second jeep, and in exchange, I got two jeeps: jeep70 and jeep70cp." At this, he pulled out two slips of paper, with jeep70 and jeep70cp written on it.
It was the middle son's turn to be confused.
"Are these the ownership agreements for my two jeeps?"
"Yes! This one is for jeep70's Club Penguin account, and this one's for jeep70cp's business gmail for all serious matters regarding Club Penguin."
The middle son beamed in a way that showed he was not at all pleased. The eldest's indignance morphed into sympathy. "Uh, you can borrow my jeep on the weekends," he said, to which the middle son said nothing.
Now it was the youngest's turn.
"My youngest," said the man. The youngest swallowed in fear.
"You will get..." The youngest was most definitely not getting a jeep. Both jeeps were gone, what could his father possibly cook up?
"...you will get my jerpson and jurplel."
"Okay," said the youngest. He didn't know what a jerpson and jurplel were, and glancing at his two brothers, they didn't either.
Seeing the look on the youngest's face, the man got to explaining. "See, I was in a huge pickle. I already gave away the first jeep. And I already sold the second jeep. From the money I got from selling the second jeep, I spent about 80% of it on the Club Penguin accounts. So I didn't have much left."
"I can see that," said the youngest.
"So, I found a guy. I paid him the remaining 20% of jeep revenue, and asked him, what's the closest thing to a jeep I can get?
"And he said, words! If a picture is worth a thousand words, a jeep is worth a million words! Unfortunately, we couldn't get you a million words because I didn't pay him enough money, but our jeep revenue was enough to get you two: jerpson and jurplel."
The eldest realized, for the first time, we had a tale where the eldest had the best outcome. "You also can borrow my jeep on the weekends," the eldest said to the youngest, to which the youngest son said nothing.
jhwsjdakls ahdjkawhld kjaskldhjwa skljdshwaj kldsjhkdjh sakjdhasdkj hwalskdjas hdkawhlkds jshwajlkjs hadkwjdsah dlkjasdhjk dashljksdhj waskljdhas jkdahlwkdj shdjaklwaj dhsaklshwj daklhwajkl djhjdaskjha djksahdjkls ajhdkjshak jdhaskjhad jkawhldkja shjdkalsdja whdkasljhd shjklhadkla jhadjwklas hjdaklshdj khaslhjdask ldhjasdkhw djkhaskjda hsjdljkhwak ljhdsjkdjk lhwdkjashd jkashjkdha lwajdhj.
Hello! My name is Dennylaine Hipolito, and I’m 18 years old. I come from the vibrant city of Taguig in the Philippines. My name is a unique blend of my parents' names, symbolizing the love and unity in our family. I have three sisters: two older half-sisters and my younger full sister.
As an INFJ, I often find comfort in solitude, where I can immerse myself in music, a source of peace and inspiration for me. I have a special fondness for the color pink. When I see pink, I think of blooming flowers and cotton candy, which instantly brings a smile to my face. I also love drinking coffee, especially the iced ones. I often buy with friends and discuss our lives while drinking; other than that, it makes me happy and sleepy instead of being awake. When I’m not being productive, I often find myself spending the entire day sleeping. Despite sleeping in those long hours of rest, I still wake up feeling tired.
Family plays a significant role in my life. Most of the time we come together to watch movies or for family dinners, which helps to strengthen our bond. My parents have always supported me in pursuing my interests, and I am very thankful for that, as it allowed me to see what I truly love doing. I also have two best friends that have been there beside me through ups and downs, school drama, and most especially teenage love drama. They are always there for me whenever I need support, offering a listening ear and valuable advice.
One of my hobbies is watching films, especially K-dramas. I enjoy a wide range of genres, from Disney animations to thrilling action-packed movies; however, my favorite genres beside that are sci-fi and fantasy movies. My all-time favorite cinematic experience is the Marvel Universe. After watching a film, I like discussing it with friends, sharing our favorite moments and surprising plot twists, which deepens our connection.
In addition to films, I also have a passion for video games. Gaming serves as my favorite way to unwind and relieve stress. I often play with friends, where we chat, share laughs, and encourage one another. Through gaming, I have made friendships and created countless fun memories. Me and my friends love playing Call of Duty and spend till midnight playing. Also, that is where I met my best friend. What a small world indeed. I also love playing The Sims 4; it plays with my creativity skills. I love creating a sim, designing the interior of my houses, and making story lines for my sims to create drama.
On top of that, one of my favorite leisure activities is playing the guitar. I often lose track of time while strumming my favorite chords. It helps keep my mind at peace, providing a soothing escape from the pressures of daily life. When I play music, it calms me and relieves my stress. Whether I'm practicing alone or jamming with friends, the guitar has become an essential part of my life, making my days fun.
Preface
Thousands of years ago, power was mostly gained through physical violence and maintained with brute strength. There was little need for subtlety—a king or emperor had to be merciless. Only a select few had power, but no one suffered under this scheme of things more than women. They had no way to compete, no weapon at their disposal that could make a man do what they wanted—politically, socially, or even in the home.
Of course men had one weakness: their insatiable desire for sex. A woman could always toy with this desire, but once she gave in to sex the man was back in control; and if she withheld sex, he could simply look elsewhere—or exert force.
What good was a power that was so temporary and frail?
Yet women had no choice but to submit to this condition. There
were some, though, whose hunger for power was too great, and who, over the years, through much cleverness and creativity, invented a way of turning the dynamic around, creating a more lasting and effective form of power.
These women—among them Bathsheba, from the Old Testament;
Helen of Troy; the Chinese siren Hsi Shi; and the greatest of them all, Cleopatra—invented seduction.
First they would draw a man in with an alluring appearance, designing their makeup and adornment to fashion the image of a goddess come to life. By showing only glimpses of flesh, they
would tease a man's imagination, stimulating the desire not just for sex but for something greater: the chance to possess a fantasy figure.
Once they had their victims' interest, these women would lure them away from the masculine world of war and politics and get them to spend time in the feminine world—a world of luxury, spectacle, and pleasure. They might also lead them astray literally, taking them on a journey, as Cleopatra lured Julius
Caesar on a trip down the Nile.
Men would grow hooked on these refined, sensual pleasures—they would fall in love. But then, invariably, the women would turn cold and indifferent, confusing their victims. Just when the
men wanted more, they found their pleasures withdrawn. They would be forced into pursuit, trying anything to win back the favors they once had tasted and growing weak and emotional in the process.
Men who had physical force and all the social power—men like King David, the Trojan Paris, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, King Fu Chai—would find themselves becoming the slave of a woman.
Oppression and scorn, thus, were and must have been generally the share of women in emerging societies; this state lasted in
all its force until centuries of experience taught them to substitute skill for force.
Women at last sensed that, since they were weaker, their only resource was to seduce; they understood that if they were dependent on men through force, men could become dependent on them through pleasure.
More unhappy than men, they must have thought and reflected earlier than did men; they were the first to know that pleasure was always beneath the idea that one formed of it, and that the imagination went farther than nature. Once these basic truths were known, they learned first to veil their charms in order to awaken curiosity; they practiced the difficult art of refusing even as they wished to consent; from that moment on, they knew how to set men's imagination afire, they knew how to arouse and
direct desires as they pleased: thus did beauty and love come into being; now the lot of women In the face of violence and brutality, these women made seduction a became less harsh, not that they had managed to liberate themselves entirely from the state of oppression to which their weakness condemned them; but, in
the state of perpetual war that continues to exist between women and men, one has seen them, with the help of the caresses they have been able to invent, combat ceaselessly,
sometimes vanquish, and often more skillfully take advantage of the forces directed against them; sometimes, too, men have
turned against women these weapons the women had forged to combat them, and their slavery has become all the harsher for it.
CHODERLOS DE LACLOS, ON THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN,
TRANSLATED BY LYDIA DAVIS, IN THE LIBERTINE READER,
EDITED BY MICHAEL FEHER
Much more genius is needed to make love than to command armies.
NINO N D E L'ENCLO S
Menelaus, if you are really going to kill her, then my blessing go with you, but you must do it now, before her looks so twist the strings of your heart that they turn your mind; for her eyes are like armies, and where her glances fall, there cities burn, until the dust of their ashes is blown by her sighs. I know her, men elans, and so do you. And all those who know her suffer.
HECUB A SPEAKING ABOUT HELEN OF TROY IN EURIPIDES,
THE TROJAN WOMEN, TRANSLATED BY NEIL CURRY
In the face of violence and brutality, these women made seduction asophisticated art, the ultimate form of power and persuasion. They learned to work on the mind first, stimulating fantasies, keeping a man wanting more, creating patterns of hope and despair—the essence of seduction.
Their power was not physical but psychological, not forceful but indirect and cunning. These first great seductresses were like military generals planning the destruction of an enemy, and indeed early accounts of seduction often compare it to battle, the feminine version of warfare.
For Cleopatra, it was a means of consolidating an empire.
In seduction, the woman was no longer a passive sex object; she had become an active agent, a figure of power.
With a few exceptions—the Latin poet Ovid, the medieval
troubadours—men did not much concern themselves with such a frivolous art as seduction.
Then, in the seventeenth century came a great change: men grew interested in seduction as a way to overcome a young woman's
resistance to sex.
History's first great male seducers—the Duke de Lauzun,
the different Spaniards who inspired the Don Juan legend—began to adopt the methods traditionally employed by women. They learned to dazzle with their appearance (often androgynous in nature), to stimulate the imagination, to play the coquette. They also added a new, masculine element to the game: seductive language, for they had discovered a woman's weakness for soft words.
These two forms of seduction—the feminine use of appearances and the masculine use of language—would often cross gender lines: Casanova would dazzle a woman with his clothes; Ninon
de l'Enclos would charm a man with her words.
At the same time that men were developing their version of seduction, others began to adapt the art for social purposes.
As Europe's feudal system of government faded into the past, courtiers needed to get their way in court without the use of force. They learned the power to be gained by seducing their superiors and competitors through psychological games, soft
words, a little coquetry. As culture became democratized, actors, dandies, and artists came to use the tactics of seduction as a way to charm and win over their audience and social milieu.
In the nineteenth century another great change occurred: politicians like Napoleon consciously saw themselves as seducers, on a grand scale. These men depended on the art of seductive oratory, but they also mastered what had once been feminine
strategies: staging vast spectacles, using theatrical devices, creating a charged physical presence.
All this, they learned, was the essence of charisma—and remains so today. By seducing the masses they could accumulate immense
power without the use of force.
Today we have reached the ultimate point in the evolution of seduction. Now more than ever, force or brutality of any kind is discouraged.
All areas of social life require the ability to persuade people in a way that does not offend or impose itself. Forms of seduction can be found everywhere, blending male and female strategies. Advertisements insinuate, the soft sell dominates. If we are to change people's opinions—and affecting opinion is basic to seduction—we must act in subtle, subliminal ways.
Today no political campaign can work without seduction. Since the era of John F. Kennedy, political figures are required to have a degree of charisma, a fascinating presence to keep their audience's attention, which is half the battle.
The film world and media create a galaxy of seductive stars and images. We are saturated in the seductive. But even if much has changed in degree and scope, the essence of seduction is constant: never be forceful or direct; instead, use pleasure as bait, playing on people's emotions, stirring desire and confusion, inducing psychological surrender. In seduction as it is practiced
today, the methods of Cleopatra still hold.
People are constantly trying to influence us, to tell us what to do, and just as often we tune them out, resisting their attempts at persuasion. There is a moment in our lives, however, when we all act differently—when we are in love. We fall under a kind of spell. Our minds are usually preoccupied with our own concerns; now they become filled with thoughts of the loved one. We grow emotional, lose the ability to think straight, act in foolish ways
that we would never do otherwise. If this goes on long enough something inside us gives way: we surrender to the will of the loved one, and to our desire to possess them.
Seducers are people who understand the tremendous power contained in such moments of surrender. They analyze what happens when people are in love, study the psychological components of the process—what spurs the imagination, what casts a spell.
By instinct and through practice they master the art of making people fall in love. As the first seductresses knew, it is much more effective to create love than lust. A person in love is emotional, pliable, and easily misled.
(The origin of the word "seduction" is the Latin for "to lead astray")
A person in lust is harder to control and, once satisfied, may easily leave you. Seducers take their time, create enchantment and the bonds of love, so that when sex ensues it only further enslaves
the victim.
Creating love and enchantment becomes the model for all seductions—sexual, social, political. A person in love will surrender. It is pointless to try to argue against such power, to imagine that you are not interested in it, or that it is evil and ugly. The harder you try to resist the lure of seduction—as an idea, as a form of power—the more you will find yourself fascinated. The reason is simple: most of us have known the power of having someone fall in love with us. Our actions, gestures, the things we say, all have positive effects on this person; we may not completely understand what we have done right, but this feeling of power is intoxicating. It gives us confidence, which makes us more seductive.
We may also experience this in a social or work setting—one day we are in an elevated mood and people seem more responsive, more charmed by us.
These moments of power are fleeting, but they resonate in the memory with great intensity. We want them back. Nobody likes to feel awkward or timid or unable to reach people. The siren call of seduction is irresistible because power is irresistible, and nothing will bring you more power in the modern world than the ability to seduce. Repressing the desire to seduce is a kind of
No man hath it in his power to over-rule the deceitfulness of a woman.
MARGUERITE OF NAVARRE
This important side-track, by which woman succeeded in evading man's strength and establishing herself in power, has not been given due consideration by historians. From the moment when the woman detached herself from the crowd, an individual
finished product, offering delights which could not be obtained by force, but only by flattery ... . the reign of love's priestesses was inaugurated. It was a development of far-reaching importance in the history of civilization. . . . Only by the circuitous route of the art of love could woman again assert authority, and
this she did by asserting herself at the very point at which she would normally be a slave at the man's mercy. She had discovered
the might of lust, the secret of the art of love, the daemonic power of a passion artificially aroused and never satiated. The
force tints unchained was thenceforth to count among the most tremendous of the world's forces and at moments to have power
even over life and death. . . .
The deliberate spellbinding of man's senses was to have a magical effect upon him, opening up an infinitely wider range of sensation and spurring him on as if impelled by an inspired dream.
ALEXANDER VON GLEICHENRUSSWURM, THE WORLD'S LURE, TRANSLATED BY HANNAH WALLER
Repressing the desire to seduce is a kind of hysterical reaction, revealing your deep-down fascination with the process; you are only making your desires stronger. Some day they will come to the surface.
To have such power does not require a total transformation in your character or any kind of physical improvement in your looks. Seduction is a game of psychology, not beauty, and it is within the grasp of any person to become a master at the game. All that is required is that you look at the world differently, through the eyes of a seducer.
A seducer does not turn the power off and on—every social and personal interaction is seen as a potential seduction. There is never a moment to waste.
This is so for several reasons. The power seducers have over a man or woman works in social environments because they have learned how to tone down the sexual element without getting rid of it.
We may think we see through them, but they are so pleasant to be around anyway that it does not matter. Trying to divide your life into moments in which you seduce and others in which you hold back will only confuse and constrain you.
Erotic desire and love lurk beneath the surface of almost every human encounter; better to give free rein to your skills than to try to use them only in the bedroom.
(In fact, the seducer sees the world as his or her bedroom.)
This attitude creates great seductive momentum, and with each seduction you gain experience and practice. One social or sexual seduction makes the next one easier, your confidence growing and making you more alluring.
People are drawn to you in greater numbers as the seducer's aura descends upon you. Seducers have a warrior's outlook on life. They see each person as a kind of walled castle to which they are laying siege.
Seduction is a process of penetration: initially penetrating the target's mind, their first point of defense. Once seducers have penetrated the mind, making the target fantasize about them, it is easy to lower resistance and create physical surrender.
Seducers do not improvise; they do not leave this process to chance. Like any good general, they plan and strategize, aiming at the target's particular weaknesses.
The main obstacle to becoming a seducer is this foolish prejudice we have of seeing love and romance as some kind of sacred, magical realm where things just fall into place, if they are meant to.
This might seem romantic and quaint, but it is really just a cover for our laziness. What will seduce a person is the effort we expend on their behalf, showing how much we care, how much they are worth. Leaving things to chance is a recipe for disaster, and reveals that we do not take love and romance very seriously. It was the effort Casanova expended, the artfulness he applied to each affair that made him so devilishly seductive. Falling in love is a matter not of magic but of psychology. Once you understand your target's psychology, and strategize to suit it, you will be better able to cast a "magical" spell. A seducer sees love not as sacred but as warfare, where all is fair.
Seducers are never self-absorbed. Their gaze is directed outward, not inward. When they meet someone their first move is to get inside that person's skin, to see the world through their eyes. The reasons for this are several.
First, self-absorption is a sign of insecurity; it is anti-seductive. Everyone has insecurities, but seducers manage to ignore them, finding therapy for moments of self-doubt by being absorbed in the world.
This gives them a buoyant spirit—we want to be around them. Second, getting into someone's skin, imagining what it is like to be them, helps the seducer gather valuable information, learn what makes that person tick, what will make them lose their ability to think straight and fall into a trap. Armed with such information, they can provide focused and individualized attention—a rare commodity in a world in which most people see us only from behind the screen of their own prejudices.
Getting into the targets' skin is the first important tactical move in the war of penetration. Seducers see themselves as providers of pleasure, like bees that gather pollen from some flowers and deliver it to others.
As children we mostly devoted our lives to play and pleasure. Adults often have feelings of being cut off from this paradise, of being weighed down by responsibilities. The seducer knows that people are waiting for pleasure—they never get enough of it from friends and lovers, and they cannot get it by themselves.
A person who enters their lives offering adventure and romance cannot be resisted.
Pleasure is a feeling of being taken past our limits, of being overwhelmed— by another person, by an experience.
People are dying to be overwhelmed, to let go of their usual stubbornness. Sometimes their resistance to us is a way of saying, Please seduce me. Seducers know that the possibility of pleasure will make a person follow them, and the experience of it will make someone open up, weak to the touch. They also train themselves to be sensitive to pleasure, knowing that feeling pleasure themselves will make it that much easier for them to infect the people around them.
A seducer sees all of life as theater, everyone an actor. Most people feel they have constricted roles in life, which makes them unhappy.
Seducers, on the other hand, can be anyone and can assume many roles.
(The archetype here is the god Zeus, insatiable seducer of young maidens, whose main weapon was the ability to assume the form of whatever person or animal would most appeal to his victim.) Seducers take pleasure in performing and are not weighed down by their identity, or by some need to be themselves, or to be natural. This freedom of theirs, this fluidity in body and spirit, is what makes them attractive. What people lack in life is not more
reality but illusion, fantasy, play.
The clothes that seducers wear, the places they take you to, their words and actions, are slightly heightened—not overly theatrical but with a delightful edge of unreality, as if the two of you were living out a piece of fiction or were characters in a film.
Seduction is a kind of theater in real life, the meeting of illusion and reality.
Finally, seducers are completely amoral in their approach to life. It is all a game, an arena for play. Knowing that the moralists, the crabbed repressed types who croak about the evils of the seducer, secretly envy their power, they do not concern themselves with other people's opinions. They do not deal in moral judgments—nothing could be less seductive.
The first thing to get in your head is that every single girl can be
caught—and that you'll catch her if you set your toils right. Birds will sooner fall dumb in springtime, cicadas in summer, or a hunting-dog turn his back on a hare, than a lover's bland
inducements can fail with a woman, Even one you suppose reluctant will want it.
OVID, THE ART OF LOVE, TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN
The combination of these two elements, enchantment and surrender, is, then, essential to the love which we are discussing. . . . What exists in love is surrender due to enchantment.
JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET, ON LOVE, TRANSLATED BY TOBY TALBOT
What is good?
All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.
What is bad?
All that proceeds from weakness.
What is happiness?
The feeling that power increases—that a resistance is overcome.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, THE ANTI—CHRIST, TRANSLATED BY
R. J. HOLLINGDALE
Everything is The disaffection, neurosis, anguish and frustration
encountered by psychoanalysis comes no doubt from being unable to love or to be loved, from being unable to give or take
pleasure, but the radical disenchantment comes from seduction and its failure. Only those who lie completely outside seduction are ill, even if they remain fully capable of loving and making love.
Psychoanalysis believes it treats the disorder of sex and desire, but in reality it is dealing with the disorders of seduction. . . .
The most serious deficiencies always concern charm and not pleasure, enchantment and not some vital or sexual satisfaction.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD, SEDUCTION
Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good and evil.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, TRANSLATED BY WALTER KAUFMANN
Everything is pliant, fluid, like life itself. Seduction is a form of deception, but people want to be led astray, they yearn to be seduced. If they didn't, seducers would not find so many willing victims. Get rid of any moralizing tendencies, adopt the seducer's playful philosophy, and you will find the rest of the process easy and natural.
The Art of Seduction is designed to arm you with weapons of persuasion and charm, so that those around you will slowly lose their ability to resist without knowing how or why it has happened. It is an art of war for delicate times.
Every seduction has two elements that you must analyze and understand: first, yourself and what is seductive about you; and second, your target and the actions that will penetrate their defenses and create surrender.
The two sides are equally important. If you strategize without paying attention to the parts of your character that draw people to you, you will be seen as a mechanical seducer, slimy and manipulative.
If you rely on your seductive personality without paying attention to the other person, you will make terrible mistakes and limit your potential.
Consequently, The Art of Seduction is divided into two parts.
The first half, "The Seductive Character," describes the nine types of seducer, plus the Anti-Seducer. Studying these types will make you aware of what is inherently seductive in your character, the basic building block of any seduction.
The second half, "The Seductive Process," includes the twentyfour maneuvers and strategies that will instruct you on how to create a spell, break down people's resistance, give movement and force to your seduction, and induce surrender in your target. As a kind of bridge between the two parts, there is a chapter on the eighteen types of victims of a seduction—each of them missing something from their lives, each cradling an emptiness you can fill. Knowing what type you are dealing with will help you put into practice the ideas in both sections.
Ignore any part of this book and you will be an incomplete seducer. The ideas and strategies in The Art of Seduction are based on the writings and historical accounts of the most successful seducers in history. The sources include the seducers' own memoirs (by Casanova, Errol Flynn, Natalie Barney, Marilyn Monroe); biographies (of Cleopatra, Josephine Bonaparte, John F. Kennedy, Duke Ellington); handbooks on the subject (most
notably Ovid's Art of Love); and fictional accounts of seductions (Choderlos de Laclos's Dangerous Liaisons, Søren Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary, Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji).
The heroes and heroines of these literary works are generally modeled on real-life seducers. The strategies they employ reveal the intimate connection between fiction and seduction, creating illusion and leading a person along. In putting the book's lessons into practice, you will be following in the path of the greatest masters of the art.
Finally, the spirit that will make you a consummate seducer is the spirit in which you should read this book.
Should anyone here in Rome lack finesse at lovemaking, let him try me—read my book, and results are guaranteed!
Technique is the secret. Charioteer, sailor, oarsman, all need it.
Technique can control love himself.
O VID , THE ART OF LOVE, TRANSLATED BY PETER GREEN
The French writer Denis Diderot once wrote,
"I give my mind the liberty to follow the first wise or foolish idea that presents itself, just as in the avenue de Foy our dissolute youths follow close on the heels of some strumpet, then leave her to pursue another, attacking all of them and attaching themselves to none. My thoughts are my strumpets."
He meant that he let himself be seduced by ideas, following whichever one caught his fancy until a better one came along, his
thoughts infused with a kind of sexual excitement. Once you enter these pages, do as Diderot advised: let yourself be lured by the stories and ideas, your mind open and your thoughts fluid. Slowly you will find yourself absorbing the poison through the skin and you will begin to see everything as a seduction, including the way you think and how you look at the world. Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.
—NATALIE BARNEY
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As she waits at dawn lookin for a way
To escape her lonely heart
I wont fall down you need me
We dont follow crowds we mold them new
Im not done believe me
Wе won’t settle down we will makе them move
Make them mine
I wont let them
Swallow you
As it stands you are no longer my friend
Eat my heart take my soul
Let it burn you
What's on my mind Well Im the farthest gone youll find
You should take a look inside
You should tear apart my mind
I wont fall down you need me
We dont follow crowds we mold them new
Im not done believe me
We won't settle down well make them move
Make them mine
You should let me go
Im not worth saving
We wont let them know
Let them carry on
Let them swallow you
You wont save me too
Let them swallow you
This is a map of Earth. It uses color to show parts that are covered by land and water. The white parts of the map show large sheets of ice and snow called glaciers.
The map legend shows the feature that each color represents.
If you can dream it, you can do it.
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.
You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.
The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs, one step at a time.
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal, It is the courage to continue that counts.
It’s not whether you get knocked down. It’s whether you get up.
It is only when we take chances that our lives improve.
Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better.
He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.
Either you run the day or the day runs you.
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.
One of the differences between some successful and unsuccessful people is that one group is full of doers, while the other is full of wishers.
Do the best you can. No one can do more than that.
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing that’s why we recommend it daily.
Love your family, work super hard, live your passion.
A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake.
If you’re not positive energy, you’re negative energy.
I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.
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